Chinese Outpace the US in Race to Apply CRISPR to Human Disorders
Crispr has been a game-changer in biomedical research because of the ease and accuracy with which it can be used to edit the genetic code. Crispr is a guide molecule made of RNA that allows a specific site on the genome to be targeted. It is normally used along with a bacterial enzyme, called Cas9, which acts as molecular scissors, chopping the DNA at the exact point required.
Despite major controversies around patenting rights and ethical challenges, CRISPR-Cas9 tools have gained popularity with the scientific community. And while the US was the one to develop this revolutionary tool, attributable to various controversies and pending regulatory approvals, scientists have not been allowed to take it to human trial. On the contrary, the Chinese have so far used the gene-editing system on at least 86 people at Hangzhou Cancer Hospital under Dr Wu Shixiu.
Due to less stringent regulatory process, physicians in China have been running human trials with the gene-editing tool since as early as 2015. There are nine human CRISPR trials from China listed in a U.S. National Library of Medicine database.
“China shouldn’t have been the first one to do it,
” Dr. Wu told The Wall Street Journal. “But there are fewer restrictions.”The US is planning CRISPR trials on cancer patients that could “begin at any time” soon, according to MIT Technology Review. However, the process of receiving the official approval has been slow. This is namely because of the understandable apprehension surrounding the safety of CRISPR.
First, because the CRISPR-Cas9 technology is still quite new, all its side effects aren’t fully understood. Secondly, Western scientists are concerned about the ethical side of the issue. Is it right, from a moral point of view, to interfere with the human genome? A consensus among scientists around the world hasn’t been achieved yet.
However, in China, doctors have a slightly different approach. Most importantly, says Dr Wu, it is to try to help the patient, to give the last chance to a terminally sick person. Moreover, these experiments, of course, are carried out with the patient’s consent. “So far, 21 patients have participated in the trials. The efficiency was about 40 percent. One person has lived after the experiment for almost a year now. We started the procedure in March last year, he’s still alive, after 11 months. All patients suffered from esophageal cancer, they all had previously undergone chemotherapy, radiotherapy, and surgery, so all the participants in the trials are patients who have already tried all other methods of treatment. In general, the situation is favorable. If it wasn’t for this experiment, they couldn’t be helped by any other forms of treatment.”
Addressing concerns of Chinese doctors and researchers rushing the experiment along, putting their patients at risk, Wu has made clear that patients are told about the risks of the treatment beforehand — and many of them consent to receive it despite them. “Chinese patients want to be cured very much,” Wu said. “There’s a Chinese saying: A living dog is better than a dead lion. So patients are willing to try new cures. That’s why the ethics committee and the lab are very positive about this.”
“There’s a lot of debate in the US about the moral principles of using the new technology. In China, there’s much less debate. In addition, we are optimistic about the potential benefits of using new technology in medicine. In the US, on the contrary, they’re pessimistic, too much attention is paid to the negative effects of the new technology. It seems to me that the difference in cultures between East and West, the difference in systems, has its affect here,” concluded Dr. Wu.
